The 829 deaths should not be forgotten in the bat of an eye. Neither in 43 years of history. ETA victims’ families, at least, refused to do it. The previous week announcement of the end of terrorist violence carried on by ETA was not welcomed by the victims associations, that are swaying between hope and outrage. Tomorrow, victims’ families will manifest in order to ask politicians to keep on fighting in the name of justice and to not compromise with the terrorist organization, in view of the next November 20 elections.
These associations, even though are very different from each other for both ideology and point of view, share the refusal for payback and carry on the fight through institutional channels. The Basque terrorist group claims to have abandoned violence with “a clear, solid and definitive compromise”, but for most of the victims’ families this is not enough.
Some people deemed the announcement not so reliable, since terrorists did not handed in the weapons nor turned themselves into justice. Others outlined that the assassins have never apologize for their murders.
Some are waiting the resolution of more sensitive issues, as the future of the terrorists who are still in jail or in exile, and others, trustfully, are talking about the “generosity” that future administrations are going to demonstrate in favour of the organization, though “not at any cost”.
This evening, a bus organized by the Association “Voices against Terrorism” will drive through the symbolic areas of Madrid, where the most ferocious attacks have been committed by the Basque organization. The tour, that will begin at midnight, forecasts seven stops. The first one will be in remembrance of the explosion in the Rolando cafetteria, where twelve persons died in 1974.
And it’s not over, the bus will move forward to the Green Cruz square, where in 1992 a bomb killed five people. The following stops will commemorate the official Maria Jesús González and her daughter, killed in 1991, all the civilian casualties died because of a device exploded to actually struck an armed forces’ vehicle. The other stops will be a tribute to all people died during the 1986-1993 outrages.
Reconciliation between victims and executioners is still far away as a real possibility. The ETA announcement wasn’t really what the associations expected. Despite everything, the families of the victims leave a door open to dialogue and don’t give up hope in a more dignified end.
On the inside: